What was the experience of pre service teachers in teaching an online learning class for grade three students at meo vac

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATIONPROGRESS Topic: EXPERIENCE OF PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH LANGU

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

PROGRESS

Topic: EXPERIENCE OF PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS IN ONLINE TEACHING ENGLISH PROGRAM FOR GRADE THREE STUDENTS IN

MEO VAC Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Hong Nhung (Ph.D)

Full name: Nguyen Thi Sao Class: QH2019.F1.E20 Student ID: 19041004

Ha Noi, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 2

RATIONALES FOR THE STUDY/PROJECT 2

RESEARCH AIMS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

SCOPE OF THE STUDY 4

CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE RESEARCH 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

DEFINITION OF KEY CONCEPTS 5

REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES 7

REVIEW OF THEORIES AND FRAMEWORKS 10

RESEARCH GAPS 14

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 16

RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS AND SAMPLING 16

DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE AND METHODS 16

DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURE AND METHODS 17

CHAPTER 4: QUESTIONNAIRE 18

CHAPTER 5: TIMELINE 19

CHAPTER 6: REFERENCES 20

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background and rationales for the study

1.1.1 History and context

Ethnic minority people are commonly among the poorest and most vulnerable segments ofsociety and in many countries they have not fully benefited from the development process(World Bank 2001) Education as a development venture not only helps individuals take stepsout of poverty and miseries but also inoculates future generations from many more mishaps So,

a comprehensive development initiative for ethnic minority people should and may have a goodstart from educational improvement

In Vietnam, education has been an active area of development, in line with the United NationsMillennium Development Goals (MDGs), the country has been striving to ensure that allchildren receive the same quality of education (UNICEF, 2009) Despite ongoing initiatives toimprove the quality of education, there are still issues within the rural education system,especially in the North-Eastern part of the country such as Meo Vac, Ha Giang It is argued thatinequality has been rising noticeably within the Vietnamese Education System, especially interms of differences between rural and urban regions, and between ethnic minority groups andthe major population Vietnam has a linguistically diverse ethnic minority Yet the officiallanguage that is being taught in schools is Vietnamese This causes ethnic minority students,who often live in rural areas, to have a far lower level of educational attainment compared toVietnamese students Because of the lack of teachers, study environment, study equipment,ethnic students do not have a chance to access foreign languages such as English

Besides, the urge to pursue this study, above all, arose from my special love of teaching Thislove inspired me to complete four years of study in teaching foreign languages at the NationalUniversity of Hanoi, Vietnam This love drove me to fulfill my dream by gaining a teaching job

in a primary school at Meo Vac district, Ha Giang province, Vietnam and where I have hadopportunities to work with ethnically diverse students by online classroom My greatestexpectation in teaching was to see improvement in learning of all students in my classroom,particularly the improvement of ethnic students whose achievement reflected less effectivelearning I believe that each individual has his/her own ability that needs to be nurtured I favor

a famous quote about education from John F Kennedy “Let us think of education as the means

of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dreamwhich, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation”

1.1.2 Statement of the problem

The term “Practicum” carries a universal meaning and the interpretation of which is recognized

in multiple studies as a chance for practical teaching experience (Winsor et al, 1999; Schulz,2005; Imhof & Picard, 2009) Teaching practicum plays a crucial role in a teacher educationprogram which is created to develop pre-service teachers’ practical competence (Beak & Ham,2009)

1.1.3 Significance of the study

The research helps further experience in teaching for pre-service teachers by taking part inpracticum activities and the important roles of practicum in developing teaching professionalknowledge of university students before graduating

1.2 Research aims and research questions

This research is to investigate the experience of teaching an online English program in Meo Vacdistrict which contributes to the development of professional knowledge and skills for pre-service teachers of English fourth year students of the English Language Teacher program atUniversity of Languages and International Studies (ULIS)

The study attempts to answer these two research questions:

(1) What was the experience of pre-service teachers in teaching an online learning class forgrade three students at Meo Vac, Ha Giang, Vietnam?

(2) To what extent did pre-service teachers gain in terms of teaching professionaldevelopment by participating in the online English language teaching program?

1.3 Scope of the study

Due to limitations of time and resources, the study would centralize in aspects of the practicumprogram My thesis will adopt a qualitative approach for this study Convenience sampling will

be employed since it is appropriate and provides more chances to collect data from a smallsample size (Mertens, 2019) The research is conducted at primary schools in Meo Vac district,

Ha Giang province and the research context is grade three students at primary schools in MeoVac district, Ha Giang province There are sixteen pre-service teachers with thirty-five studentsper class

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 DEFINITION OF KEY CONCEPTS

2.1.1 Online learning

2.1.1.1 Definition

Since the flourishing of online learning, a large number of terminologies and definitions have

been used to describe it Examples of the terms that are commonly used to describe onlinelearning include e-learning, virtual learning, cyber learning, Internet learning, distributedlearning, web facilitated learning, web-based learning, distance learning, computer-basedlearning, resource-based learning, and technology-based learning (Ally, 2008; Anohina, 2005;Moore, Dickson-Deane, & Galyen, 2011; Moore & Kearsley, 2011; Rudestam & Schoenholtz-Read, 2010) The term online learning will be used throughout this paper The wide variety ofterms results in different definitions of online learning as well Authors, researchers, theorists,and educators have defined online learning in a variety of ways and from the angles of variousperspectives and disciplines Means, Toyama, Murphy, and Baki (2013) define online learning aslearning that occurs entirely (purely online learning) or partially (blended learning) through theInternet In another publication, Bakia, Shear, Toyama, and Lasseter (2012) view online learning

as “instructional environments supported by the Internet” (p 2) Ally (2008) describes onlinelearning as a learning experience that allows for growing, acquiring knowledge, and constructingpersonal meaning by providing access to learning materials through the Internet; interacting withthe content, instructor, and other learners; and obtaining support during the learning process.Moreover, new formats of online learning, such as mobile learning and MOOCs, have emerged.Mobile learning is “learning that takes place in learning environments and spaces that takeaccount of the mobility of technology, mobility of learners and mobility of learning” (El-Hussein & Cronje, 2010, p 20) MOOCs are a combination of online learning and openeducational resources (Bali, 2014) MOOCs are free of charge, open, and non-credit courses thatare offered by some higher education institutions over the Internet (Allen & Seaman, 2014)

2.1.2 Teaching Practicum

2.1.2.1 Definition of Teaching Practicum

Teaching practicum, also known as "practice teaching, field experience, apprenticeship, practicalexperience, and internship" (Gebhard, 2009) refers to one of the key components of the initialteacher-education curriculum Stanton and Giles (1989, as cited in Yan & He, 2010) defined thepracticum as 'field experiences that focus on professional practice' and 'activities that areexplicitly focused on pre-professional practice"

Quazi, Rawat and Thomas (2012) pointed out three main stakeholders that were usually involved

in the teaching practicum: (1) student teachers who have acquired several basic teachingcompetencies before participating in the field experience; (2) cooperating teachers (also called asschool advisors, school associate, mentor teacher, practicum supervisor and sponsor teacher)who are specialist teachers and well aware of pedagogical knowledge and skills (Gilckman &Bey, as cited in Keogh, Dole, & Hudson, n.d and Hickson, Fishburne, Berg, & Saby, n.d.); and(3) supervisors from the educational institute who have an in-depth understanding of thepracticum program, expectation from the schools, cooperating teachers and student teachers Thesupervisors also apprehend the expectations that the educational institution has set for theirteacher trainees as well as general students' concerns and thus can provide student teachers withsufficient guidance (McBurney-Fry,2002) These three personnel usually work in a triad tomanage the school experience program Both mentor teachers' and supervisors' support are

expected to help reflectively "articulate the particulars of their own classroom context; toexamine their own reactions, thoughts, and feelings; and to account for the intricacies of theirown teaching" (Johnson, 1996a, p 766) Although it remains unclear in how they carry out theirroles in providing this support (Wang & Odell, 2002), mentor teachers and school supervisorsare deemed to have great impact on the development of teacher trainees during their clinicalexperiences (Farrell, 2009; Roberts, Benedict, & Thomas, 2014) With the participation andcoordination of these three actors, the practicum "usually involves supervised teaching,experience with systematic observation, and gaining familiarity with a particular teachingcontext" (Gebhard, 2009, p 250) Particularly, during the practicum, pre-service teachers areassigned to a host school to "observe the teacher teaching the students and then teach part or all

of some of the lessons" and are "guided by and observed by the group of teachers or by anotherperson acting as teaching practice tutor or supervisor" (Gower, Phillips & Walters, 2005, p.209).This description outlines the following characteristics of a practicum: (1) The teaching practicecould be carried out at any school apart from the trainees' one: (2) student teachers explore theirapprenticeship through observing and imitating: (3) there must be a teacher of the local hostinstitution mentoring and supervising the trainees on their teaching; (4) there should be a team(including experienced school-based teachers and/or university supervisors) to help teachertrainees to take their apprenticeship effectively at the local host school (Tran & Nguyen, 2014).The abovementioned description by Tran and Nguyen (2014) goes in line with four out of fiveTESOL practicum highlighted by Stoyoff (1999)

1 The practicum is integrated into the academic program;

2 The delivery of the practicum emphasizes a team approach The team includes mentorteachers university supervising teachers, language program managers, and the practicum studentteachers

3 The practicum provides intensive modeling and coaching;

4 The practicum incorporates extensive, systematic observation;

5 The practicum experience is assessed by means of a portfolio consisting of

teaching videos, lesson plans and reflections

(Stoyof1, 1999, cited in Gan, 2013,p.93)

2.1.2.2 Purpose of Practicum

During our professional training, we could notice that teacher education programs are morefocused on theory But, once in the practicum, we evidenced that it goes beyond the theorytaught during the course Sometimes, preservice EFL teachers experience difficulties at themoment of relating theories learned in universities to what happens in their teaching practicum(Meijer et al., 2002) For that reason, the aim of the teaching practicum is to provide pre-serviceEFL teachers the opportunity to be conscious about practicing the theories, methods, and

techniques that they acquired in parallel with the process of teacher education (Köksal & Genç,2019) In other words, the preservice EFL teachers “need multiple opportunities to examine thetheoretical knowledge they are exposed to in their professional development opportunities withinthe familiar context of their learning and teaching experiences” (Johnson & Golombek, 2002, p.8).

2.1.2.3 Models of teaching practicum

The model of practicum in teacher training programs is believed to "play an important role indesigning an appropriate, effective and feasible program" (Ton, n.d) According to Ton (n.d), thechoice of model, on the one hand, controls the relationship between the universities and schools

On the other hand, it will be the basis for designing the contents, tasks, schedules, theoretical /practical weight for the practicum Rorrison, Mattsson & Eilertsen (2011) have listed ninemodels being implemented in current practice of teacher training education in the world:

(1) Master-Apprentice model (traditional pedagogical practice model): an internationally popular

model in teacher training education Student teachers practice teaching in public and/ or privateschools under the guidance of experienced teachers

(2) Laboratory model: a model using demonstration school in a teacher training institution as a

place to implement pedagogical practice with the idea: student teachers must enjoy a beneficialenvironment under the guidance of pedagogical experts and professional educators

(3) Partnership model: A model based on an agreement between the student teacher university

and the local schools (carefully selected and meet all requirements of conditions and capacity fororganizing pedagogical practice) The school will provide opportunities to implementpedagogical practice, including instructors and/ or documents

(4) Community development model: a model often applied in economically and educationally

disadvantaged rural settings During the practicum, student teachers practice their professionwhilst contributing to raising the awareness for students and improving pedagogical skills, etc.for in-service teachers In this process, prospective teachers will have the opportunity toconfront, discover and learn from the diverse educational reality; on the other hand, they can alsomake contributions to the development of a specific local school

(5) Integrated model: A model demonstrates the cooperation between teacher training schools

and local communities in sharing responsibilities for teacher training education Local authoritiesmay be in charge of certain education arrangements University, on the other hand, is responsiblefor sending student teachers, supervising and evaluating practicum results

(6) Case based model: a model in which teacher trainees have to participate in and encounter a

large number of authentic cases in schools to develop teaching skills by dealing with realclassroom problems They should be able to apply theory, research and experience in order toanalyze and interpret cases

(7) Platform model: A rather open and flexible model as it is designed based on student teachers'

individual needs and interests This model allows practitioners to participate in projects thattranscend the conventional practicum periods and provides closer and more versatile links

between universities and schools More varied ways of examining and reporting are encouraged.

(8) Community of practice model: a model based on the idea that learning is part of a social

praxis where participants learn from each other Pre-service teachers participate in diversecontexts to experience, develop competencies and confidence needed for future careers

(9) Research and Development model: a model based on an agreement between the universities

and the local community to coordinate the implementation of relevant research and development

of the local schools

(Mattsson, Eilertsen & Rorrison, 2011)

At the researched institution, pre-service teachers used to take an uninterrupted teachingpracticum for 6 weeks in either form: join a group of teacher trainees with a teacher mentor to ahost school pre-assigned by the university or complete a stand- alone after completing the 3rdyear of the 4-year learning process This model followed the partnership model

Despite the diverse forms and implementation of the practicum models, all of the abovementioned models share one characteristic in common There must exists the relationshipbetween the university and the host schools

2.2 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES

The following sections seek to review existing practices in different countries in the world and inthe local context of Vietnam

2.2.1 Related literature in international context

Review of studies related to practicums across contexts shows that the structure of practicumdiffers greatly from country to country To begin with, practicum programs in the USA oftenhave been constructed as a separated corresponding program (Zeichner & Wray, 2001; Wray,2007; Stoynoff, 1999) While not specifically investigating any programs, Zeichner & Wray(2001) investigated the utilization of teaching portfolios within a variety of teacher educationcurricula in the US The US practicum models often last from 9 to 12 months Along with the use

of portfolio, a student-initiated practicum experience is carried out within a 12-month period.The model was reported to promote participants' long-term knowledge about the nature ofteaching as well as encourage their creativity and independence (Stoynoff, 1999)

Practicum experience programmed in the UK and Germany differ in duration and starting point(Imhof & Picard, 2009; Winsor & Ellefson, 2010) Pre-service teachers spent three semesters(around a school year and a half) learning on campus and teaching in local institutions andworking as a school staff (Winsor & Ellefson, 2010) Imhof & Picard (2009) also mention a two-year course during which the performance of pre-service teachers in practical situations areassessed; however, unlike above cases, a mentor/ supervisor was assigned to plan, correspondand evaluate the whole process

Tindowen et al (2019) recorded a one-year practicum where Philippines University allowedstudents to work in the Education Department in the first half, and then teach in public school inthe remaining time Meanwhile, a project launched in Ethiopia claimed to have a four-phasepracticum in six distinguished primary schools with the participation of not only pre-service butalso in-service teachers (Malesse, 2014) Likewise, a study from Seoul University suggested afour-phase teaching practicum lasting for four weeks by seniors of the College of Education(Baek & Ham, 2009).

Allen & Wright (2014) reported on a three-week program in the first year of a post-collegedegree for graduates and certified bachelors in Australia There is an evident difference in terms

of program duration among the programs by Allen & Wright (2014) and EPA (2009) and thosereported previously in North America, Europe or Philippines

2.2.2 Related literature in the Vietnamese context

This section reviews studies in local contexts There have been several policies and relatedstudies that highlight the importance of teaching practicum in Vietnam In terms of policies, theMinistry of Education announced Circular 07/2015/TT-BGDDT which regulates the totalnumber of credits for Bachelor curriculum at a minimum of 120 credits The importance ofimproving practical teaching experience for pre-service teachers is strongly emphasized inteacher education programs (Le, 2017) In addition, Nguyen et al (2009) conducted an in-depthanalysis of local teaching experience of pre-service teachers in 2009, using pre-service teachers'reflection via survey Likewise, Tran and Nguyen (2017) conducted a study on a six-weekcompulsory teaching practicum as the pre-service teachers spent their time in schools aroundHanoi Ha (2019) conducted an investigation into 9 well-known teacher education institutionsout of 26 universities in the whole Vietnamese territory, numbers retrieved from the Ministry ofEducation publications in 2017 The analysis provided details on teacher practicum and one ofthe 9 examined sites was precisely the site of this research The first difference lies in the number

of practicum-related credits per institution While 8 universities allotted 10-18 credits forprofessional teaching practices (theory and real experience), one university had only 3 credits forthe practicum of pre-service teachers The activities compressed within the curriculum shows adistinction between the case study and 8 other institutions The practicum covers a wide area ofknowledge and competency; therefore, the implementation of a 6-week internship in the lastsemester would not provide sufficient training for pre-service teachers and so, suggestions weremade with regards to the legitimate starting point of practicum (Ha, 2019)

Previous studies

In the field of education, much attention has been paid to the practicum as a pivotal course unit

in any initial teacher education program It is worth mentioning that in 2013, Cohen (Sayag),Hozb and Kaplana undertook a review of empirical studies on the practicum in preserviceteacher education, which analyzed 113 studies conducted between 1996 and 2009 The reviewportrayed a picture of the rationales, goals, activities, roles, and outcomes in the differentpracticum settings in teacher education programs Not long after that, in 2015 came the reviewpublished by Lawsona, C akmakb, Gu ndu zc and Bushera which focuses on research studies

into the school practicum published between 2000 and 2012 The study named "Research onteaching practicum - a systematic review" focuses on research studies into the school practicumpublished between 2000 and 2012 This literature review presents a state-of-the-art andsystematic review of past research in order to identify the main issues and also to provide acontemporary picture of practicum 114 studies published on the topic are reviewed and analyzed

in terms of: (i) aims, (il) main participants, (ili) methodology used and (iv) the main outcomesemerging

Though there is an overlap in terms of time, the two systematic reviews focus on differentaspects of the researched studies Therefore, the combination of these papers has formed a rathercomprehensive picture of school practicum However, the review by these authors only reportedstudies up to 2012, while research on practicum keeps growing ever since From 2013 until now,most of the research concerning student teachers' experience during their practicum focus onother subjects rather than what student teachers actually learn in their practicum (e.g challengesfaced by pre-service teachers (Le, 2013; Gan, 2013, Moussaid & Zerhouni, 2017; Díaz & Trejo,

2018 ); the role of mentor teachers and supervisors (Canh, 2014); the gap between expectationand reality (Vo, Pang & Wah, 2018) and student teachers' concerns (Arslana & Ilin, 2018).Concerning the subject matter of this study, it is worth mentioning that in 2019, Sathappan andGurusamy utilized a combination of interviews, questionnaire and journal writings to obtaininformation on student teachers' perspectives of the roles of practicum program in promotingtheir pedagogical skills and subject matter knowledge Findings from this study suggests thatpre-service teachers have improved their lesson plan preparation, the ability to produce subjectrelevant teaching aids, classroom management skills and students' learning motivation(Sathappan and Gurusamy, 2019) The findings are in line with a previous study conducted byPinder (2008) in which student teachers have claimed to learn about behaviour management,lesson planning, curriculum delivery, effective communication, professional relationships,children, and teachers' selves A research conducted on the role of practicum program inenhancing student- teachers pedagogical skill by Qazi et al (2012) revealed that practicumprogram plays a significant role in enhancing pedagogical or teaching skills of the student-teachers This study shows that practicum programs help student- teachers to develop the skill ofclassroom management, lesson planning, preparation of teaching aids, and preparation of subjectrelevant teaching aids Moreover, researchers distinguished that practicum program is anessential part of teacher education program that engages student- teachers to apply the theoriesthat they have learned in the teacher education institution into practice in the actual class room inthe school However, for practicum to take place and play its role successfully, teacherinstitutions and school communities needs to work together as strong university-schoolrelationship helps to enhance the professional development of prospective teacher in applyingtheory in to practice (Brady, 2006) Therefore, practicum has a key role in shaping pre-serviceteachers teaching profession and this ensured through the active collaboration and commitments

of practicum participants Pinder's study (2008) also investigated further on how student teachers'learning occurred in their practicum According to Pinder (2008), pre-service teachers couldeither learn by starting with engaging directly in professional practice or observing a socialmodel Either way, working with children in a sustained way was essential for makingconnections between what they had been told, what they believed, what they saw in practice, andwhat they felt they could implement themselves

In a previous study, Wickramasinghe (2004) investigated how a group of pre-service teachers in